It’s always great when you hear of students who go above and beyond in school or in life and even better when you hear of those who make the right decisions in an adverse moment.

Recently, a few Huntington Beach Union High School students and two of their fathers rescued eight locals in Mexico. We are proud of these students, who are all seniors: Ian Fewel, Chad Masri and Rob McCarty and dads, Chris Fewel and Keith Devine.

They are all heroes. Here is the story as told by one of the students, Ian Fewel.

“We went to Platanitos to surf the beach break there, which was populated by several local campers. To get to the beach from the road that is on top of a cliff, you have to walk downstairs to a river that flows next to the cliff and out to the point.

“So we all grabbed our boards, paddled across the river, walked down to the beach, and finally paddled out into a head-high, walled-out, river jetties-style wave. The water was empty until we got there and packed it with our team, all of who surfed for about an hour.

“I stayed out with Rob McCarty and Chad Masri, along with Keith Devine and my dad,for about another hour past that. A right started to pop up that was pretty fun, breaking right next to the river, so we started to surf that.

“While we surfed, about eight locals waded out into the water to play in the whitewash, which could have been anywhere along the 2-kilometer stretch of beach. But they decided to play right where we were trying to surf.

“As we decided to catch a last wave in, we heard the locals start yelling about something. We didn’t really take notice at first, but then they didn’t stop, and their voices became panicked.

“That’s when we recognized they were yelling for help: ‘Ayuda!’

“They had gotten too close to the river, and it had swept them out past where they could no longer touch the bottom. My dad and I were closest to the pack, so we were the first on the scene, and we looked for the most distressed to take in first.

“None of them were strong swimmers, some being unable to swim at all, but I grabbed one girl who was unable to swim and taking in a lot of water. I put her on my board and began to swim her in towards shore.

“The sets were inconsistent, but when they came, I had to grab the girl off the board, take her under the waves, then set her back on the board and continue swimming. We had to swim across the beach first because we couldn’t swim against the current of the river. Once we got over and in a little way, I was able to push her and the board into waves and ride in beside her.

“Once she was in, I jumped back in the water to go out and help the others. As I paddled out, Chad was going in to grab a long board to give it to one of the larger locals. About halfway out, Keith was swimming himself in because he had given his board to another local.

“The locals had been split into two groups now, with five still in need of help, one of whom was being helped by a local surfer. Most of that group had a board, and the local surfer, a girl, had them under control, so I paddled over to where Rob and my dad were.

“My dad had also given his board to one of the locals in the other group, and he was trying to swim with an older woman and a man weighing about 250 pounds. They were all hanging on to Rob’s board, and he was attempting to pull them in, against the current of the river. Rob was trying to pull about 400 pounds of dead weight through the water, which was all he could really do, and he was getting nowhere.

“When I got to them, I had them put the locals on our boards, and we did the same thing as before, swam across the beach out of the river and then in to shore. We had to repeat the earlier process of taking the people off the boards to go under waves, putting them back on, and trying to ride in with them.

“The whole time we were trying to keep them calm with our broken Spanish, telling them to go under water and to kick while we swam with them. I think I was able to communicate well enough with them, thanks to Mrs. Caballero, an Edison High Spanish teacher.

“All eight of the locals came in unscathed and were very thankful and appreciative to Rob, Keith, Chad, my dad and myself.”

Dr. Van W. Riley is superintendent of the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.